Jason Jordan is Vice President and Partner at Vantage Point Performance, and the author of Cracking the Sales Management Code, and contributed this guest post.
I was recently speaking at the American Society for Training and Development’s international conference, and I happened into a conversation that yielded a very interesting quote. The quote was from a corporate trainer who was commenting on the high number of technology vendors at the conference. She said, “Seeing all these vendors isn’t really that helpful to me. I already have a technology platform, and I don’t need another one. What I need is to understand what to do with the one I have?”
While this quip was specifically referring to a Learning Management System (LMS), we think we could apply the statement to CRM, as well. At this point, we all have a CRM tool, and we don’t need another one. We just need to know what to do with the one we have.
The truth is that sales managers aren’t taught how to use their CRM tools to manage and coach their sellers. Sure, they’re taught how to log into the system. And how to navigate the screens. And how to input data. And how to run reports. They’re taught how to interact with the system, and that’s about it. So now what
What should they actually do with the information at their fingertips? Of all the data in the system, which is the most important? What does it mean? How do they use it in a coaching conversation? How does it enable better selling? How does it enable better management
To use an automobile analogy, it’s like the sales managers are given the operator’s manual to a car, but they’re not told where or how to drive it. They are taught what the steering wheel does, but they’re not told how to decide in which direction to turn it. They’re taught that the accelerator makes the car go faster, but they’re not told how fast to drive in a given situation. In essence, they’re taught the technology, but not what to do with it.
It’s our experience that most sales forces don’t need a new CRM tool… They first need to learn what to do with the one they have. Collectively, we need driving lessons for the sales force using CRM as the vehicle. So what would those driving lessons look like
Well, we at Vantage Point Performance have made some contributions to the sales force driving school, based on our research into how leading companies are using data to manage their sales forces. By studying real sales data and real sales management practices, we discovered straight-forward models that accomplish a few important things.
First, we uncovered a sales metrics framework that helps sales managers wade through the morass of data posing as information. It categorizes all sales data as either a Business Result, a Sales Objective, or a Sales Activity. It also demonstrates that of these three types of metrics, only the Activities can be managed. This helps managers focus on the things that they can actually control.
Second, we discovered causal relationships between the Activities, Objectives, and Results that allow sales managers to isolate the few Sales Activities that will have the highest impact on sales performance. This helps managers make better decisions about how to prioritize their time and the time of their reps.
Finally, we discovered techniques that help sales managers use data in constructive coaching conversations. Rather than using data as a weapon of mass inspection, sales managers can use sales data to re-frame their interactions with their sales reps as high-value coaching conversations. And that is the best use of data, no doubt.
So don’t take issue with your CRM tool… It’s probably good enough. If you’re frustrated by this one, you’ll be frustrated by the one that eventually replaces it, too. Trust us, we know. CRM is just a machine, and all machines are useless without a good set of instructions.
What might help is to better understand what to do with all of the data that resides in that fantastic reporting machine. Reports are only useful if they can be culled for the right information to focus sellers and sales management on the right activities at the right time. And now there are some simple frameworks to help managers do just that.
(Please see the Amazon.com best-seller Cracking the Sales Management Code for a more detailed explanation of the frameworks mentioned above.)
